Quotations and aphorisms by Colin Powell:

What you're seeing with Occupy Wall Street and the others are people who are unhappy and they're directing their unhappiness now toward Wall Street and toward those they think are doing too well in our society.~Colin Powell

Link:

I think whether you're having setbacks or not, the role of a leader is to always display a winning attitude.~Colin Powell

Link:

Never neglect details. When everyone's mind is dulled or distracted the leader must be doubly vigilant.~Colin Powell

Link:

I don't want to spend the rest of my life giving speeches.~Colin Powell

Link:

You don't know what you can get away with until you try.~Colin Powell

Link:

If you are going to achieve excellence in big things, you develop the habit in little matters. Excellence is not an exception, it is a prevailing attitude.~Colin Powell

Link:

The chief condition on which, life, health and vigor depend on, is action. It is by action that an organism develops its faculties, increases its energy, and attains the fulfillment of its destiny.~Colin Powell

Link:

Many interviewers when they come to talk to me, think they're being progressive by not mentioning in their stories any longer that I'm black. I tell them, 'Don't stop now. If I shot somebody you'd mention it.'~Colin Powell

Link:

Don't be afraid to challenge the pros, even in their own backyard.~Colin Powell

Link:

But just as they did in Philadelphia when they were writing the constitution, sooner or later, you've got to compromise. You've got to start making the compromises that arrive at a consensus and move the country forward.~Colin Powell

Link:

Organization charts and fancy titles count for next to nothing.~Colin Powell

Link:

War should be the politics of last resort. And when we go to war, we should have a purpose that our people understand and support.~Colin Powell

I think the Iranians are clearly determined to have a nuclear program. And we have to assume that with a nuclear program they have the capability and the will to create a nuclear weapon.~Colin Powell

Link:

Get mad, then get over it.~Colin Powell

Link:

I consider myself a moderate Republican. I have very, very moderate social views, and I'm pretty strong on, on defense matters.~Colin Powell

Link:

It isn't enough just to scream at the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations. We need our political system to start reflect this anger back into, 'How do we fix it? How do we get the economy going again?'~Colin Powell

Link:

It ain't as bad as you think. It will look better in the morning.~Colin Powell

Link:

Leadership is solving problems. The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help or concluded you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership.~Colin Powell

Link:

We need to understand that we as citizens and as a government in any community throughout this country have no more important obligation than to educate those who are going to replace us.~Colin Powell

Link:

Experts often possess more data than judgment.~Colin Powell

Link:

I don't think we handled the aftermath of the fall of Baghdad as well as we might have. But that's now history.~Colin Powell

Link:

Avoid having your ego so close to your position that when your position falls, your ego goes with it.~Colin Powell

Link:

I don't know that there is much the United States can do except work with the international community.~Colin Powell

Link:

Don't let your ego get too close to your position, so that if your position gets shot down, your ego doesn't go with it.~Colin Powell

Link:

Have fun in your command. Don't always run at a breakneck pace. Take leave when you've earned it, spend time with your families.~Colin Powell

Link:

No battle plan survives contact with the enemy.~Colin Powell

Link:

Look at the world. There is no pure competitor to the United States of America.~Colin Powell

Link:

Today I can declare my hope and declare it from the bottom of my heart that we will eventually see the time when that number of nuclear weapons is down to zero and the world is a much better place.~Colin Powell

Link:

I always like to take my time and examine the two candidates, see not only the two candidates but the policies they will bring in, the people they will bring in, who they might appoint to the Supreme Court, and look at the whole range of issues before making a decision.~Colin Powell

Link:

The United States is not stingy. We are the greatest contributor to international relief efforts in the world.~Colin Powell

Link:

The healthiest competition occurs when average people win by putting above average effort.~Colin Powell

Link:

I was born in Harlem, raised in the South Bronx, went to public school, got out of public college, went into the Army, and then I just stuck with it.~Colin Powell

Link:

The purposes of the United States should not be doubted. The Security Council resolutions will be enforced - the just demands of peace and security will be met - or action will be unavoidable. And a regime that has lost its legitimacy will also lose its power.~Colin Powell

The only bipartisanship you ever see is when they finally sign a bill and everybody says, 'Gee, isn't that wonderful?'~Colin Powell

Link:

My own experience is use the tools that are out there. Use the digital world. But never lose sight of the need to reach out and talk to other people who don't share your view. Listen to them and see if you can find a way to compromise.~Colin Powell

Link:

Wouldn't it be great if we could look forward to a whole world in which no child will be left behind?~Colin Powell

Link:

Success is the result of perfection, hard work, learning from failure, loyalty, and persistence.~Colin Powell

Link:

Foe means enemy. Now, will we have differences of opinion with the Russians? Yes. Will they get mad at us from time to time, and we get mad at them? That's part of the normal diplomatic relations.~Colin Powell

Link:

Don't bother people for help without first trying to solve the problem yourself.~Colin Powell

Link:

If a leader doesn't convey passion and intensity then there will be no passion and intensity within the organization and they'll start to fall down and get depressed.~Colin Powell

Link:

It's nice to say let's be bipartisan. But we're a partisan nation. We were raised as a partisan nation.~Colin Powell

Link:

The commander in the field is always right and the rear echelon is wrong, unless proved otherwise.~Colin Powell

Link:

In terms of the legal matter of creating a contract between two people that's called marriage, and allowing them to live together with the protection of law, it seems to me is the way we should be moving in this country.~Colin Powell

Link:

It's not just a matter of whether you support Obama or Romney. It's who they have coming with them. I always keep my powder dry, as they say in the military.~Colin Powell

Link:

It's a disgrace that we have millions of people who are uninsured.~Colin Powell

Link:

We all hoped in 2001 that we could put in place an Afghan government under President Karzai that would be able to control the country, make sure al-Qaeda didn't come back, and make sure the Taliban wasn't resurging. It didn't work out.~Colin Powell

Link:

I respect the fact that many denominations have different points of view with respect to gay marriage and they can hold that in the sanctity in the place of their religion and not bless them or solemnize them.~Colin Powell

Link:

Some of the generals are saying, 'We're making progress. We are clearing an area.' But you really don't defeat the Taliban by clearing an area. They move.~Colin Powell

Link:

It was the Congress that imposed 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell,' it was certainly my position, my recommendation to get us out of an even worse outcome that could have occurred.~Colin Powell

Link:

90 percent of my time is spent on 10 percent of the world.~Colin Powell

Link:

A dream doesn't become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work.~Colin Powell

Link:

Too often we act - ask our schools to be truant officers, our teachers to be truant officers, because we're giving them children who have, you know, they're not ready to learn. And if they're not ready to learn by the third grade, they know they're behind.~Colin Powell

Link:

You should see what our Founding Fathers used to say to each other and in the early part of our nation. But what they were able to do, especially in Philadelphia in 1787, four months, they argued about what a House should be, what a Senate should be, the power of the president, the Congress, the Supreme Court. And they had to deal with slavery.~Colin Powell

Link:

When you decide to get involved in a military operation in a place like Syria, you've got to be prepared, as we learned from Iraq and Afghanistan, to become the government, and I'm not sure any country, either the United States or I don't hear of anyone else, who's willing to take on that responsibility.~Colin Powell

Link:

So like any football or basketball coach, you always always believe you're going to win.~Colin Powell

Link:

Economy's got to get moving, we've got to get the unemployment rate down. That may be the defining issue of the campaign.~Colin Powell

You can't just have slogans, you can't just have catchy phrases. You have to have an agenda. And I think what the Republican Party has to do, if it's going to incorporate the tea party efforts in it, is to come up with an agenda that the American people can see, touch, and actually believe in, and something they believe in.~Colin Powell

Link:

Politics is not bean bags. It's serious, tough stuff.~Colin Powell

Link:

Surround yourself with people who take their work seriously, but not themselves, those who work hard and play hard.~Colin Powell

Link:

There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.~Colin Powell

Link:

Never let your ego get so close to your position that when your position goes, your ego goes with it.~Colin Powell

Link:

There are lots of countries that are having these kinds of internal civil wars in other parts of the world and nobody is talking about intervening.~Colin Powell

Link:

Fit no stereotypes. Don't chase the latest management fads. The situation dictates which approach best accomplishes the team's mission.~Colin Powell

Link:

Bad news isn't wine. It doesn't improve with age.~Colin Powell

Link:

In other words, don't expect to always be great. Disappointments, failures and setbacks are a normal part of the lifecycle of a unit or a company and what the leader has to do is constantly be up and say 'we have a problem, let's go and get it'.~Colin Powell

Link:

Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate and doubt, to offer a solution everybody can understand.~Colin Powell

Link:

Giving back involves a certain amount of giving up.~Colin Powell

Link:

We got rid of a terrible dictator. We gave the Iraqi people an opportunity for a new life under a representative form of government.~Colin Powell